Dec. 14, 2009

Damian Saunders and B.J. Monteiro went to meet the media in the immediate aftermath of Duquesne's 59-54 victory over Robert Morris.

Eric Evans went to the Palumbo Center practice gym.

He was upset about missing a couple of free throws with six seconds remaining and was intent upon immediately doing something about it.

"I'm struggling at the free throw line right now," Evans said.

With less than a minute remaining on Saturday night, Evans had been precisely what the Dukes needed him to be.

Leading 55-54 and inbounding following a timeout, Duquesne spread the floor and gave Evans the ball. The plan was to run a back-screen for Saunders, but Robert Morris took that away.

Evans responded by driving the lane and scoring the bucket that gave Duquesne critical breathing room at 57-54.

"I was able to create," Evans said.

He finished with eight points and five rebounds in 28 minutes, but also with six turnovers and just two assists.

The performance was fairly representative of Evans' first season as the Dukes' new point guard.

He made some plays but fell short at times, as well, particularly in terms of his decision-making and the tempo with which he ran the Dukes' attack.

That being the case, head coach Ron Everhart was asked about his confidence level in his decision to spread the floor for Evans with less than a minute remaining and his team clinging to a one-point lead.

"I have no confidence in him at all, but he's all I got," Everhart said. "My man is feast or famine.

"But he made a basket when we needed it and you have to admire that."

The approach of late has been to reduce Evans' minutes in the hopes of getting more from him during those minutes.

The Dukes worked Jason Duty, Sean Johnson and Monteiro at the point when Evans sat against Robert Morris.

"He's a conscientious kid, a tough kid," Everhart said. "I really thought he played a pretty good game, other than he didn't take care of the ball very well.

"We just don't have that flow yet. He doesn't understand on-time, on-target. He doesn't understand getting it up the floor on the pass instead of the dribble. We've just got to get him to speed us up, not that we want to take quick shots. But we want to try to attack the rim quickly, and if we don't get it bring it back out and make them guard us."

What Everhart is after is the type of spread-the-floor, quick-passing, dribble-drive, kick-out approach employed by Robert Morris on Saturday night.

"They were us the last couple of years on offense," Everhart said.

Duquesne, by comparison, was in "slow motion."

It's not all attributable to the absence of Melquan Bolding (wrist).

"We need to cut our turnovers down and make better decisions," Saunders said.

Added Monteiro: "Everybody's not shooting particularly well, like Eric (Evans), Billy (Clark) and Jason (Duty). But we know they're going to start making threes. When they start making threes the lanes will open up more and we'll get easier points."

The Dukes were 19-for-55 from the floor against Robert Morris, including 5-for-24 from behind the arc.

They compensated by defending, by getting to enough loose balls, by rebounding and by converting second-chance points.

"They made the water boil," RMU head coach Mike Rice said.

That won't always be enough.

"At some point we're going to have to outscore somebody," Everhart said.

The hope is that by then Evans will have advanced his game and in the process the Duquesne offense.

"I'm still trying to get experience," he said. "I think I'm going to be all right."